Tories delay action on Bill of Rights

Ministers are to review human rights laws that have allowed terrorists to seek
refuge in Britain.

The Government will establish a commission to consider a UK Bill of Rights that would give British courts supremacy over European legislation.

The proposal has raised fears that the scrapping of human rights laws will be delayed or even abandoned under the coalition deal with the Liberal Democrats.

The Conservatives had pledged to introduce the Bill of Rights without delay.

Over the past few years, concern has mounted over the failure of British courts to extradite foreign criminals because it would threaten their human rights.

The Human Rights Act, which became law in 2000, was intended to place a legal framework around citizens’ most important rights.

It has been blamed for allowing terrorism suspects to take refuge in Britain and even preventing police forces from revealing the identities of criminals on the run.

In the Tory manifesto, David Cameron pledged to introduce a UK Bill of Rights that the party had already been reviewing. In 2007, Mr Cameron said that the protection the law offered to criminals was a “glaring example of what is going wrong in our country”.

However, it now appears that the plans may have been delayed following the coalition agreement with the Liberal Democrats.

There was confusion yesterday over the introduction of the new Bill of Rights after a senior Cabinet minister indicated that plans to repatriate powers from Brussels had been abandoned. Asked on the BBC Radio Four World at One programme if the Government would consider repealing relevant “major European law”, Francis Maude, the Cabinet Office minister, said: “I can’t comment on that, we’re not planning that.”

Downing Street sources later confirmed that Kenneth Clarke, the Justice Secretary, would establish a commission on a UK Bill of Rights. It has not yet been announced who will head the commission or when it will report. Mr Clarke has previously been an outspoken critic of Tory plans for a Bill of Rights.

In 2006, he attacked Mr Cameron’s proposals to tear up the Human Rights Act and said a Bill of Rights was “xenophobic and legal nonsense”.

The plans may also face opposition from lawyers.

Keir Starmer, the Director of Public Prosecutions, said scrapping the Act would bring “shame” on Britain.